The Greatness of Poetry IN ancient times, during the Roman ascendency, there was a great rhetorician, Longinus by name. According to him the greatness of any writing lies in how far it echoes the inner Self. The more developed is the soul of a poet the higher will be the poetic genius. An immature soul can hardly soar very high. A modern English critic,¹ who appreciated this view, remarked that the present-day artistic creations are mostly insignificant and futile, for the modern world is wanting in highly developed souls. . Not to speak of a really great soul, we have almost forgotten in these days the meaning of creation by the inner soul. The source of inspira

Poetry and Mantra POETRY and mantra are not one and the same thing. I shall try to point out the difference between the two. Poetry can turn into mantra; not only that, poetry must needs be so. The highest form and the most perfect perfection of poetry lie in the mantra. Likewise a mantra can manifest itself in the shape and form of poetry. But that is a thing we hardly meet with. Let us now focus our attention on something else. When we study the Gita or the Upanishads or the Vedas, the idea never flashes across our mind that we are reading poetry; our consciousness enjoys a delight which surpasses that of poetry. Here is a clear proof. When we speak of genuine poetry,

The Language of Rabindranath IF Bengali has become a world language transcending its form of a provincial sub-tongue, then at the root of it there is Rabindranath. To-day its richness has become so common and natural that we cannot conceive immediately that it was not so before Tagore's mighty and ceaseless 'creation worked at it for half a century. I am not speaking of the literature, I am speaking only of the richness of the vocabulary, the diversity of the speech form, its modes and rhythms. The capacity of a language lies in its power of expression, that is to say, how many subjects can it express itself on and how appropriately? In the gradual progression of

ON SPIRITUALITY Where is God? GOD you do not find? No God – not at all? But why should He be found? And to own Him, what right have you? How much of yourself have you offered to Him? Every moment, every limb of yours, how far have you consecrated? Your call is merely lip-deep. You have called on Him in a slight difficulty or out of sheer curiosity, and forthwith is He to appear before you in person? Perhaps He does come down. But where is your eye to see? Seated in an abysmal, pitch-dark cave, tightly closing your eyes in addition, you cry out in a fit of restive passion and with a stupendous laugh of disdain "Where is the Sun, where is the lamp of Phoebus

The Novel Alchemy ACCORDING to the Bible, God said, "Let there be Creation", and the Creation came. God was pleased, not only because the Creation came but also because the Creation was all-perfect, with nothing to change: it was like an edifice firm and solid and flawless, it would endure eternally firm and unchanging, fixed in every detail and exactly as it was on the first day. The Rishis of the Upanishads give us a slightly different version. God was not at all pleased with the first sketch and with the forms of animalkind created. He tried a second time, and again it failed to please. After several essays of this nature, He was at last pleased with His work when man c

Lines of Tantra (Charyapada) AT least the names, "Natha-yogis" and "Siddhacharyas" must have been familiar to you, perhaps you may have heard about their writings too, the body of poetry known as caryapadavali. Today I would like to say something on this subject. This introduces us to a particular epoch in our history and its peculiar training and culture, where the human consciousness has found a particular expression for which one cannot find a parallel. It was what is known as the age of Tantric Buddhism. During this period, a special kind of spiritual discipline and culture had been growing as a result of the Buddhist influence. It extended mainly over north-eastern

Life and Self-Control (A Letter) THERE is no doubt that Europe knows very well the art of life which in our country is totally lacking. In the East it is only Japan that knows it and knows it well enough. Our country on the whole and most of the East is at present steeped in inertia. You have asked me the exact meaning of control of the senses and what is its necessity in life. For, in India we have held up this ideal on an elaborate scale, but to what effect? Europe cares little for it, yet she rules the world. Firstly, whether self-control is necessary or not depends on the nature of our ideal. Self-control is only a particular means to a particular end. If

The Obscene and the Ugly – Form and Essence OBSCENITY has its place in art, but not ugliness. Obscenity and ugliness are not the same, nor are decency and beauty. To maintain and hide the brute in man is a characteristic feature of the civilised world, and this is what is called decency. And to expose this brute nature to daylight is obscenity. Is there any necessity or usefulness at all in exhibiting the brute nature in any sphere of a civilised society? Brute truth may be admitted in the world of scientific research. But the question arises whether an artist also has the same privilege. From the standpoint of the creation of beauty what purpose

Lone to the Lone THE quintessence of spirituality is said to consist in, as has been described in the famous phrase of the Alexandrine mystic philosopher Plotinus, the flight of the lone to the lone. God is a solitary and the other solitary is the soul: so when one solitary mingles with the supreme solitary, the result is utter solitariness, which is spirituality at its apex, its highest height. The world, in this view, is an excrescence, an epiphenomenon – Illusion, Maya. God is the transcendent Reality, above and beyond all manifestation, negating all multiplicities and relativities of creation: He is indivisible, single, absolute unity – ekamevādvitīyam, kevalam – neha nānāsti kinc

Three Degrees of Social Organisation DECLARATION of Rights is a characteristic modern phenomenon. It is a message of liberty and freedom, – no doubt of secular liberty and freedom – things not very common in the old world; and yet at the same time it is a clarion that calls for and prepares strife and battle. If the conception of Right has sanctified the individual or a unit collectivity, it has also pari passu developed a fissiparous tendency in human organisation. Society based on or living by the principle of Right becomes naturally and inevitably a competitive society. Where man is regarded as nothing more – and, of course, nothing less – than a bundle of rights, human aggregation is